WAILUA — If Rowena Pangan and her partners are able to keep even one Kauaian out of an institution by helping train that special-needs person to be self-sufficient, their dreams will be reality. The dream of Pangan, Aldrene Scovel and
WAILUA — If Rowena Pangan and her partners are able to keep even one Kauaian out of an institution by helping train that special-needs person to be self-sufficient, their dreams will be reality.
The dream of Pangan, Aldrene Scovel and Alison “Anela” Pa is Ho‘omana, a nonprofit corporation to assist the emotionally, physically and mentally challenged person, and to empower challenged individuals to gain optimum economic self-sufficiency.
The dream becomes a reality — at least the beginnings of the physical center for their corporation — today, Friday, Aug. 27, when a blessing is conducted at 5:30 p.m. along Kuamo‘o Road just mauka of Kuhio Highway in the former Rehabilitation Unlimited Kauai (RUK) location along the Wailua River.
It will be some time — they’re not sure how long — before the thrift shop, classrooms, administrative offices, laundry room (to teach self-sufficiency skills), and wood shop (to teach employable skills) are open for business. “Only God knows” the opening date, Pangan said.
All three partners are parents of special-needs children, and their nonprofit corporation grew out of frustration at not having information and other resources available to them on this island while trying to get the best available educational, medical and therapeutic services for their children.
Pangan, corporation president, said she was told by state Department of Education officials that her daughter was un-teachable because of a hearing impairment and another disability. It took a lawsuit to convince DOE officials otherwise, and that journey gave Pangan valuable experience in due process and fighting for services that she found out were available, sometimes, simply by asking, she said.
“Ho‘omana” is a combination of Hawaiian words, “Ho‘o” meaning “to cause action,” and “mana” meaning “authority” or “power.” Combined, “Ho‘omana” means “to empower oneself.”
The goal is to empower parents to get their hands on the best available information, programs and specialists on Kaua‘i, without having to leave the island either permanently or temporarily, and to empower special-needs children and adults with skills that quite possibly will keep them from institutionalization, the partners said.
“It’s a big dream, but it’s our passion,” Pangan said. “Our local children on Kaua‘i are being institutionalized,” sometimes at very young ages, and with a bit of self-sufficiency training, she is sure she and her partners can deliver skills to youngsters that will allow them to live at home with parents, or in group homes, or independently.
“If we can keep one person from being institutionalized, that will be worth it.”
The common thread between the partners is their special-needs children, and around six years ago they formed a parent-support group which grew, inevitably, into Ho‘omana, Pa said. The support group was a place for parents to go and vent, to get emotional support, and to learn ways to navigate a complex educational and legal system where special-needs children and adults are concerned.
They found there were virtually no available services on the island in terms of diagnosis, doctors, and educational programs for special-needs children, and that the parents battling for their children were their best resources as well as strongest allies.
“Nobody could teach us better than the parents who have been through it,” Pangan said. Most of the sprawling building will be converted into a thrift shop, with proceeds from sales of donated items to fund programs and other services. A resource center will tap into the experiences of the parents, and a grant from officials at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is helping fund the start up.
The former RUK site is being subleased from Walter “Freckles” Smith of Smith’s Motor Boat Service, who holds the master lease on the state land. Son Kamika Smith serves on the Ho‘omana board of directors, and the entire Smith family has been very helpful and supportive, the Ho‘omana partners said. Others who have helped include Sam and Yvonne Pa, Avery Youn, LaFrance Kapaka-Arboleda of OHA, appraiser Dennis Nakahara, members and coaches of the Pu‘uwai Canoe Club, and many others, the partners said.
Phase one of a three-phased plan is getting the building renovated so that the thrift shop and office can be established. Phase two is renovation of an area that will be become a conference room, and the third phase will be to renovate an existing wood shop to use as a place to teach basic carpentry skills. Another goal is to establish a place where the partners can hold meetings and bring from O‘ahu and other places medical experts in subjects like autism, so that parents won’t have to travel to Honolulu or beyond to get services for their special-needs children.
The partners all have experience in traveling off-island to get help for their children. When Scovel, a single parent, must take her autistic son to Honolulu for medical care, it’s a journey, navigating the airport, dealing with feeding her son on the road, and other chores that “normal” families have no problems with. “It’s hard,” she said.
“Dealing with the day-to-day is hard enough, but having to fly is even harder,” Pa said.
The partners also found that while working Kauaians have insurance coverage that covers most of the medical costs, that coverage doesn’t cover airfare. Pa used her own insurance to get her child assessed, and even then, it was just “bare-bones basics.”
Scovel said she is “empowered” by her experience trying to get services for her son at Koloa School, adding, “a lot of parents don’t know their options.” It costs government around $30,000 a month to take care of an autistic adult, said Scovel, who knows that the experts in the field are on the Mainland but she doesn’t want to be. “This is my home,” she said.
Pangan said she knows her daughter can be self-sufficient, and that the DOE system did not work for her family even though the individual teachers went well beyond the call to deliver educational services. “The teachers are phenomenal,” and DOE officials and teachers don’t always work hand in hand to deliver the services, Pangan said.
If the ones who know best, the teachers, were allowed to run the programs, they would be run much more efficiently and effectively, Pangan said.
Still, Pangan and her partners have high hopes for Ho‘omana. “I have lots of hopes and dreams for this place,” Pangan said. While the partners are all Native Hawaiians, they stressed that the center is for anyone with special-needs family members or friends. A huge yard sale is tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 28, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the site, and a membership drive is ongoing. For more information, please call Pangan, 822-5529; Pa, 645-1840; or Scovel, 651-2250.
Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
